Detour
by supercave
Summary: He has to spend a year in high school, tenth grade. All Mary Cooper wants is for her baby to have some friends, maybe even a girlfriend. He's sure no good will come from this, and then he meets her. He hates it when he isn't right.
1. Chapter 1

**Uh...I'm trying to make it really dark, but you know angsty. Anyways, it won't be too many chapters. Also, I want some serious pity with my take on Sheldon's character. I don't know how to write him, so I apologize. I'd really like some feedback, I want to know how to make it better. **

**I'm okay with updates, but I suck at endings. You've been warned. I really hope you guys enjoy this, I've been very nervous to post this, it's just been rotting away in my laptop. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

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><p>He isn't sure, but he feels like his mother is right about all that god stuff. Because surely, if it wasn't a higher power doing this to him, then it would be the universe. And he loved the Universe too much to put any blame on it.<p>

It was God, or Satan, whatever it was that his mother grumbled on about all day.

He was to be sent to high school. A grade ten class, he'd spend the entire year there, but only to socialize, nothing else. He'd attend classes and such, to make _friends_. The year that he was supposed to spend in Germany has been moved over a year at his mother's request. Her dear Shelly needed something other than those stars that he talked to.

For the first time in his life, he acted like a petulant child, he complained, whined, and was even near tears, but Mary wouldn't budge. Germany could wait a year, it's not like he'd have trouble in high school.

He had a PhD for crying out loud, did he really need to revert back to tenth grade math?

The universe couldn't do this to him, only a higher power would be able to pull this off. Or maybe his mother, he didn't know which one was stronger.

He didn't like the way his father looked at him. While he was away at school, he was able to escape his family, his brother, his sister, his overbearing mother, and absentee father. Sheldon felt like an invalid when he was home, his entire family treated him like a burden, the entire town looked at his mother and father with sympathy. As if Sheldon had a disability. Everyone, with just one look, conveyed how they felt about him; _we feel sorry for you._

So he made sure everyone knew not to, he was better than them. He'd shape the world, he'd make a difference, everyone else, his mother, father, sister, brother, town preacher, all those kids at school, all of them would die without moving a speck of dust. They'd be buried underneath history, Sheldon would be different. He would be listed among those that made history, he'd be one of the greats, he'd be one of those that changed the world for what it was now. For what it will be.

But for now, his mission was delayed.

High school...he'd be a sophmore in high school. As if he didn't conquer tenth grade math when the rest of his school mates were still trying to fit the triangle in the square. He hasn't seen most of these children since he left to go to school in Austin.

He had a plan though, he'd just act like those moody teenagers that Missy is always pining over on TV. He'd wear a sweatshirt, and listen to his ipod, he'd learn German while he sat through the mind numbing hours of TV the teachers wouldn't talk to the brooding bad boy, they'd leave him alone to well..._brood._ Maybe he'd work on his thesis too, maybe he'd finish it. He probably would, there wouldn't exactly be anything to keep his mind distracted.

It worked for the most part, upon seeing him, the teachers would send him straight to the back, and none of the other kids would even look at him. He cracked open his text book, turned on the German Audio download and went to work. Yes, he'd finish his PhD. Science was the end of the day period, there were lab tables, which would mean he'd have a partner. It was just a little dent in his plan, the person that would sit beside him wouldn't even notice. He'd hope not at least.

So the teacher rambled on about electricity, getting most of the facts wrong. Leaving more than necessary amount of crucial information out. Sheldon got to sit by himself anyways, no one would be his partner, he smirked into his text book. He learned in the beginning of the day that one of his ear of his headphones were broken, probably due to Missy's negligence to his things. The teacher was in the middle of explaining how metal doesn't transfer through electricity when a blonde girl barged in.

"Sorry Mr. Archer, guidance just changed my schedule, looks like I'm in your science class now."

Oh, Sheldon thought uselessly, it seems as though he'd have a partner. He just hoped she'd mind her own business and be less irritating then the rest of his peers.

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><p><strong>DUN DUN DUN <strong>

**AND THEY MEET! **

**Okay, I hope you like it. Next chapter will be Penny's point of view. Till then! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, now Penny's point of view! So, there are probably a lot of mistakes in this story, I'm sorry but I really can't help that. I've read it over and over as many times as I could. Also! I stole some of the siblings names from other fanfiction stories, I really hope if that's alright, if it isn't then I'll change it right away. Again sorry in advance. I'm rather nervous about this chapter because I'm not very good at writing dialogue. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**I hope you like it! **

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><p>Penny came to live in Texas when his dad's older brother got sick. So her father moved her entire family out to a tiny town in Texas and told them to call it home. Penny's mother wasn't happy, her brother wasn't happy, she wasn't happy, it only became clear to Penny recently that her father wasn't much happier.<p>

But he was stubborn, so that meant that they were staying till Penny's mother; Jane would threaten to leave him. Penny decided that she'd just have to sit tight and wait for that moment to come. For now, she vowed to make her life as fun as she could.

"Alright Penny, you'll have to sit beside Sheldon." Mr. Archer points to the back of the room next to a boy with a dark blue hoodie and giant head phones sticking out. He was reading from what it looked like. Penny heard of Sheldon Cooper, he was some genius guy that left when he was in fifth grade to go to university or something like that. No one knew why he had returned, they just knew that he had. Josh said that he was still as freaky as he was before, he just wore less Super hero stuff, and took on the emo approach.

That was the problem with small towns, they were small minded too.

So she skips towards her seat in the back with the genius. Or used to be genius. She didn't think that people could just stop being smart, but maybe he did.

"Hey, I'm Penny."

Sheldon turned to look at her, she was a little shocked by the colour of his eyes. She hadn't ever seen them so blue before, than almost automatically, she turned to look at his mouth. His bottom lip looked so plump and pink. Then, just like the shameless hussy that she was, she continued to check out the rest of him. She didn't stop till she realized that he knew what she was doing, it's not like she was trying to hide it. She was too preoccupied with how good he looked.

The thing was, pretty people weren't unpopular, at least not in this town, or the town she lived in before. She couldn't understand why her friends hated Sheldon so much, because it seemed as though, he fit the criteria quite nicely.

"If you're done now," Sheldon muttered, bringing her out of her head. Penny blushed, and turned her head biting her lip in embarrassment.

They didn't look at each other for the rest of the class.

When Penny gets home, she already knows that there's a fight going on. She isn't sure if it's between her brother and her parents, or just between her parents. Recently, Tommy has been acting up, staying out late, getting drunk, coming home high. She doesn't know why, Tommy's smart. Really smart, he used to get A's in everything and now, he doesn't.

Now, he doesn't even show up to school.

Jane tells him that they're going to send him away, but Tommy only laughs, "Of course, sweep the problems under the rug. Everyone does it, why not you?" He says it all the time. He repeats, and repeats it.

So Penny's parents look at her now, she thinks it's too much pressure, she's not smart. She knows it, Tommy got all the good genes, he was planned, she was the outcome of an unlucky condom. She's pretty she knows, it's in her genetics, everyone in her family is pretty, but she isn't smart. That much she's taken acceptance over, she'll always only be an average student.

That's what bothers her so much, her entire life she will be average. She will be whatever everyone else is. She hates it, but she can't change it.

"Penny!" Tommy screams when she gets inside. She hadn't even shut the door yet, "Penny, tell momma, that I can't be their pretty perfect child anymore."

His eyes are bloodshot, she can see the red marks on his arm, _junkie_ her brain hisses. But she's loyal.

"Jesus ma, give him a break yeah?" she rolls her eyes, sweeping her hair over her shoulder. She pointedly stares at his arms, willing his sleeves to go down by themselves. This happens from time to time, he's good at covering them up, but then he gets into a fight, and he rolls them up. She doesn't want to see it, she wants his sleeves down. At least then she can pretend.

"Penny...oh, my sweet girl. Why do you stand up for him?" Her mother is crying, tears are streaking down her face. She knows what her mother is thinking. _What happened to my children?_

It's not like Penny can answer her, because really, Penny doesn't know it either. She doesn't know what's wrong with Tommy, she doesn't know why he does this, why he insists on making their mother cry. But she's loyal.

"Look, mom, it's okay. Tommy, go upstairs alright, no point in making her cry." He does as he's asked, Penny wets a cloth and cleans her mother's face with it. "It's alright mom, he's just a boy. He's just acting out because Sally isn't talking to him."

She fibs, although, maybe they're just lies now. Maybe smart people can just stop being smart. Tommy sure is trying.

After her mother has relaxed Penny goes upstairs and changes into a pair of shorts that she's sure her mother wouldn't approve of. She would bellow how Jesus didn't attend for women to show so much skin.

Whatever, she didn't believe in god. She didn't know why she had to.

When she was younger, Tommy was the one that used to tuck her into bed. And sometimes, she still catches him coming to her room and pulling the blanket tighter around her, or closing the window, picking up something things that lay on the floor. It's times like these when she remembers that this is her brother, her protector. She closes her eyes and lets him take care of her. Because everyone needs to be needed. And she will always need her brother.

And that is where her loyalty lies.

"Hey Penny," Charlotte calls out to her, she just arrived at school. "We've got some exciting news!" Charlotte was the first friend that she made, it's out of that respect that Penny continues on to be her friend.

"Her Charlotte, did Clayton ask you out yet?" Penny asks, only because she knows that's what Charlotte wants to hear.

"Oh my god! Yes! We're going to Cole's party tomorrow."

She's about to respond when she sees Sheldon passing by. He forgo the over large sweatshirt, choosing to go with a dark shirt with some kind of logo on it, he has a light grey long sleeve underneath. His hair is a mess. He looks mad. She knows he looks mad, so she doesn't know why she goes up to him.

"Hey, Sheldon right?" she asks. He stops, his eyes are darting around trying to catch anything but her.

"Yes." he says, he hasn't got an accent like everyone else, it's cute. "Was there something that you needed my assistance with Penny?"

"No, no, I just wanted to say hi. You were so quiet yesterday."

"We were in class were we not? I was under the impression that class was for learning." He's got some bite in his words. Why is he being such an asshole? She was only being nice, besides, isn't it a good thing when a pretty blonde wants your attention? She narrows her eyes at him.

"Like Archer's got anything to teach you anyways, or you do just lack the social skills to be polite."

Her hands automatically go to her hips, and now she looks like she's scolding him. But she can't help it.

"My mannerisms and etiquette are not lacking. Your blatant refusal to take a hint though seems to a little short."

Her jaw hangs open, she's too angry to punch him in the face, or maybe it's because he's too pretty. She hasn't decided.

"You should close your mouth," he says with an eyebrow raised, "it gives off the wrong impression."

He walks away, and this time, Penny really is too angry to punch him in the face.

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><p><strong>Sheldon Cooper floats my boat. He floats Penny's as well. Personally, I don't wanna punch him, he really is that pretty. Hope you enjoyed it! Please review! Criticism is welcomed with warm and open arms. <strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Funnily enough, writing in Sheldon's point of view is much easier then writing in Penny's. Anywhoooo, thanks so much to everyone that's reading along. I hope you like this chapter, worked very hard on it. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**ENJOY! **

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><p>He breaks into a run after he's out of her sight. He's been spending too much time with his brother and sister, he's never been so rude before. He didn't even know why he was mistreating her like that, but he couldn't stop the words from flowing out of his mouth.<p>

He leaned against the cool wall, and closed his eyes.

School girl uniforms never really appealed to him as it did most boys his age, that is until she came along. He could barely open a text book, let alone read it after he met her. She wasn't a shy girl, that much was obvious, the second she met him, she was giving him a once over. It was something he's seen people do, all the time. He's just never had it done to him before, and it was quite unsettling.

"Sheldon Cooper?" his teacher was calling his name for what seemed like ten minutes, but he couldn't hear her over the chatter of his head phones. He had fixed the right ear last night, rather poorly, the only person was to blame was Penny. He had so little information about her, maybe that's why she was in his head.

It wasn't often that only one thing kept his mind occupied, and it agitated him that she did so.

"Sheldon Cooper?" he teacher asked again with aggravation.

"Present."

He'd have to collect a proper amount of data before coming to the conclusion as to why she was just so...annoying. Sheldon sighed and peered out the window, only two days of high school and he's already turned so juvenile.

"Hi jackass." Penny said to him, he was sitting in the corner picnic bench underneath a oak tree. Since he was so absent minded recently, he thought that he'd take his lunch hour to do some work. He's about to open his mouth to say something biting, and mean, but he holds his tongue.

"I'm assuming you like being insulted." He didn't hold his tongue hard enough.

She just rolled her eyes. "I just want to know why you hate me so much. Once you tell me, I'll break your nose, and we'll be even. Hows that sound?"

It didn't sound good, and by the look of her brawny hands, it was obvious that she could actually break his nose. So he raised his arms up in surrender.

"I apologize, I haven't been kind."

"None of that. Tell me why you're such an asswipe." And just like it was the most natural thing in the world she took a bite of his pizza slice, and put it back on his plate. He stared at the violated slice horrified, when he turned to look at Penny for some sort of explanation as to why she would do that to him, she showed no signs of even acknowledging that she had just ruined his lunch.

"What?" she asked.

He had no words.

"Well, I'm waiting!" she pulled her hair up in a pony tail, some pieces were still sticking out.

"Why did you take my food?" he asked, his voice was barely above a whisper. She leaned her head towards his, squinting into his eyes. Her eyes were such a pretty green.

"I just took a bite," she said.

"You've ruined the integrity of the rest of the slice." he tells her. "How am I supposed to eat this with your saliva all over it?"

She rolled her eyes, a rather nasty habit that reminded him of Missy. "I didn't lick it Sheldon. It's just a bite. Here," she picked up the slice again and attempted to bring it against his lips. He shrieked and moved his head away as fast as he could.

"That's just cruel Penny!"

"It's not, what's the worst that can happen? You get some Penny cooties? I assure you, Penny cooties are a good thing." She tries to make him take a bite again, but he keeps moving back.

"Penny stop it," he tries to grab her wrist but she's too fast. "There are so many germs that can get transferred, none of which are in any way hygienic, lets not play with fire."

"Oh stop being a wuss. How are you going to kiss a girl if you can't take a bite this pizza?"

His eyes widened. "Why in the world would I ever-"

She puts the slice in mid speech. He clamps down on the pizza and before he can carefully open his mouth so that he doesn't tear off a piece, Penny rips it from his mouth, leaving a mouthful of cheese, bread, tomato sauce, and Penny germs.

She can tell by the way he looks that he's about to spit it out. "No! Sheldon, it's already in there, just eat it."

And then, slowly but surely, he does. He chews the first couple of times, very carefully, and then it starts to get quicker. Once he swallows, he almost drains his coke and then glares at her.

"That was unfriendly." he informs her.

She rolls her eyes again, and he can't help but thinking when she does it, it's not all that irritating.

"Oh whatever, you need to get over that, now listen. Tell me why you hate me."

He sighs heavily, and stares at the sad little slice. "My mom told one of my mentors that I need to take a year off and socialize with people my own age group," he looks sadly at the ground, he could be in Germany right now, doing research, winning awards, getting closer to proving String Theory. "it's startling how much my mother is wrong about most things. She thinks I can relate to certain people since they are in my age group, what she refuses to see is that people who are the same age migrate together is because they have the same level of maturity, interests and such."

And then he stares at Penny plainly, "It's doubtful that even if I make an effort to be friends with the same group of kids that shunned me when I was younger, it wouldn't work out."

Penny's face turns into sympathy, "I'm sorry I made you eat that pizza slice."

That sentence means truce, he's sorry, she's sorry, no noses will be punched. He says something that didn't consult with his brain first.

"It's okay, Penny cooties aren't so bad." and then he bites off another bite. Penny smiles and he finds himself not really minding his mouth doing something before consulting with his brain, as long as it meant that he got to see her eyes sparkle like that.

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><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed that very much. I did. Hehehe, okay, next chapter is Penny, it's almost done so it should be posted soon. <strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**And here's PENNY! I made this chapter because I caught on too a mistake in the story. My bad! I tried to make this up too you with an extra gushy chapter. I hope you will take my apology. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory**

**Have fun! **

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><p>Sheldon Cooper was a mystery. Something about Sheldon made Penny look, she wanted to know what made him tick, what made him smile, what made him angry, and what made his happy. He could be a real jerk if he wanted to, but she knew that he could be really sweet too.<p>

She felt something warm fly through her stomach when he ate off the piece that she bit. She'd seen the way that he acted around school, she'd watched him more intently then she'd like to admit. He rarely looked at anyone, when he walked, it was so careful and measured, he'd cringe when someone would brush against him. He wouldn't talk, ever. When the teachers called on him, he'd pretend that he couldn't hear, but she knew that he did. Because he's eyes flicker up, and he opens his mouth a little, like he's about to answer the question, but he remembers that he's supposed to be angst filled, brooding, jaded boy.

He's standing by her car one day, its sparse when Sheldon is the first one to talk. But he's leaning against her car, with a book in his hand, and she has to remind herself not run over to him.

"I need the assistance of you and your automobile." he tells her once she's in earshot.

"I don't hear a please in there." Penny says, but she's already letting him in the ca.r

"Please," he drawls out sarcastically.

Her friends have been giving her grief lately about hanging out with him so much, she had to bite her tongue. She doesn't so much to stop them, because she's so terrified, than when Sheldon leaves next year and she still has to be here, she won't have any friends. So she moves around carefully with her friends, making sure she doesn't step on any toes.

"Where do you live?" she asks.

"Your check engine light is on," he tells her, and then to make his point he stares at the light, as if he's trying to will it to stop blinking. Then he turns to raise an eyebrow at her.

"It's always on," she starts to pull out of the driveway, "don't worry about it."

"Penny, put your seat belt on," and then, "Penny, you didn't adjust your mirror," and then "Penny, you just cut that guy off."

It's an endless string of questions, he won't shut up. She's reminded of her drive instructor, Mr. Brown just listed off rules that she got wrong and then continued to question her about the things that she was doing right.

"Where do you even live Sheldon?"

"112 Elm Ride." he muttered.

"Oh, you don't live that far from me."

They talked about what they usually talked about, she talked about school, and her hair, and what she liked, and he talked about science, which is the only thing that he liked. They had next to nothing in common, but it sort of worked that way. She liked to listen about his interests, she liked the way he almost got lost in his own mind when talking to her about his research. She liked the way when she told him her stupid, very insignificant problems, he'd treat it like an equation and fix it for her.

"Here you are," she smiled up at him. Lately she'd been wearing shoes with a bit of heel, to at least get up near to where he was. "see you tomorrow Sheldon."

He waves to her and gets out, his mother meets him at the door, giving him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. She can still see him rubbing it off his cheek, Penny thinks that she's kind of glad his mom made him come and stay here this year. Even if it makes him miserable, she's never denied being selfish.

When she goes to find him in the courtyard at lunch, she finds him with three other guys. She hadn't seen them around before, but they look their age. She rushes over to them, she's sort of afraid that they're giving him heck.

But once she's in ear shot she hears him laughing. As much as Sheldon can laugh, his wheezy breathy giggle he gives out.

"Hey Sheldon," she starts hesitantly.

"Hello Penny," he says the same formal way as he always does. The three other boys that are all sitting with him gape at her. She recognizes Raj, his father is her and her mothers doctor, she's seen him in and around the office before. He was always quiet. There's the kid in a size too small pants, bad bowl cut, and pervy smile. And the last one she knows, Leonard, he's her neighbour.

"Penny, this is Rajesh, Leonard, and Howard." he motions over to her to sit next to him, and she does, oh so carefully. "Men, this is my..." he trails off, he doesn't know what to refer to her as. "friend, Penny."

He sends her a tiny smile, and her stomach feels warm again. She grins widely at the boys, "Nice to meet you all,"

"You too," Leonard squeaks.

The rest of the lunch goes by quietly, and awkwardly, it seems as though that Raj doesn't talk, Howard's personality matches his pervy smile and Leonard is so obviously into her. But none of that matters, what matters is those boys are almost as smart as him. When he talks they can give him the answers he wants, she learns that they're all juniors but they're graduating early, all of them are almost geniuses, and she's just the silly blonde girl. She's never felt so lonely and out place before. What if Sheldon was just using her till he found his own hot shot smarty pants friends?

It hurts to think about, she's grown fond of him these past weeks. Would she really be that easily replaced? She thinks back to before when he was introducing her, _"Men, this is my...friend, Penny."_ Was he embarrassed to call her friend?

She slumps down lower into her seat. By the time science rolls around she's moody, and mad, and even more so, she's sad.

"Hello Penny," Sheldon greets her, he slides into the seat next to her, he never tries to sit anywhere else. "How was your afternoon classes?"

"Good," she mumbled.

"I'm sorry, has something upset you?"

"No," she shakes her head, "I'm not upset."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were lying."

"Well you don't know any better." she snaps, and instantly she feels bad at the way he reels away from her. She won't say sorry, instead she's raise her chin and pointedly ignore him. After about twenty minutes and a fair amount of huffing, Sheldon finally leans towards her, she can feel his lips hovering just hover the shell of her ear. She hopelessly shivers.

"I understand that you are distressed," he says, "and I'd like to know why."

"Why are you so interested?" she mumbled, not turning her head to look at him.

He gulps, she can hear him licking his lips, she knows that he's nervous. "You are, what I'm led to believe...my best friend."

Penny gasps and spins her head to stare at him, she very narrowly misses his lips.

He continues on, his voice growing raspy, "Therefore, making...your concerns, my concerns."

She smiles, the warm feelings returns to her stomach, she doesn't know what to say. Sheldon doesn't like human relationships, if he could, he'd be a robot. But he isn't, and she knows that he hates it more than anything. He hates it more than having to be stuck in this stupid town.

And then, she notices that his face is oh so close to hers, she can feel his breath on her face, "I'm jealous," she whispers. She doesn't mean to be so honest, "or...you know, I was jealous. I'm not anymore."

"What were you envious of?"

"Leonard and them...I thought, since you found some new friends, I don't know. You'd stop being mine."

She's scared to look at his face now, and she's so sick of being timid and shy.

She hears Sheldon's wheezy laugh, "That would be a negative," he shifts a little bit away from her, and she immediately misses the body heat. But for right now, she's content with hearing his clothes ruffle with each shake of laughter. For right now, she's content.

He stops asking for rides, instead she can count on him leaning against her car after school. Book in hand, on days she has cheer leading practice he's sitting up on her hood, all of his research and texts books laid out before him. Sometimes, when he doesn't realize that she's there, she can catch him writing equations in the air. It's cold for February, but she's hot and sweaty from practice. The drills that Alicia made the team do were borderline abusive, so she has the windows rolled down and she's belching Britney Spears as loud as she can.

"Penny, I've come to a realization...something I should have caught on before."

"Yeah, what's that?" she asks.

"Did you fail a grade?"

She swerves, one hand is on the wheel, her face is fully turned to his. She thinks, that maybe she should be staring at the road, but she's too angry.

"Excuse me? Do you think I'm that fu-" she stops, he really doesn't like it when she swears, so she makes an effort not. "Do you think I'm that stupid?"

"I don't understand the question." he says, but she's sure that he does. "although what I meant is why are you driving if you are not the age limitations of 16?"

She snorts, of course he would be the last one to notice that she's been driving without a license.

"Also, I'd very much like it if you kept your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel."

"No, I didn't fail sweetie."

He shrieked, and she swerved again. "You mean to say...you're driving illegally?"

"Oh, it's a small town, no one cares."

"You do not have a license?" His voice gets all quiet and panicky, "You do not have a license!"

"Haven't I been getting you home in once piece?"

"I've been lucky," he mutters.

"You don't believe in luck."

"I don't have to believe in it."

She laughs, it's loud and carefree. She hasn't been laughing like that for some time, and she misses it. She misses feeling easy, and free. She's reminded once again, that he takes some of the pressure off, there's just something about him that makes her happy.

She doesn't want him to leave, not ever, not even if it makes him unhappy.

She's never denied being selfish.

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><strong>I hope you enjoyed that. Reviews please? They make Penny very unselfish. :) <strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm compelled to tell you that you should read this chapter while listening to Tighten Up by the Black Keys. I listened to it while writing, you may like it. **

**Anyways, Sheldon's point of view. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**Hope you enjoy! **

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><p>His hands play with her hair, she leaves it down all the time, and it's like his hand develops a mind of it's own and migrates towards her hair. The dandelion coloured hair that stays past her shoulders, it always smells like vanilla. He just has to play with it.<p>

He doesn't know why.

And that's not something that he can say too often.

She's grown accustomed to it too, he smiles every time they sit together and she lets her hair down from the pony tail it's in just for him to fiddle with it. In science his arm has to rest of her chair so it won't get sore. At lunch he has to sit it on her shoulders, and she doesn't seem to mind.

His research isn't going as fast as he hoped, he thought that he'd have nothing but mind numbing time, but he's a lot more distracted.

He didn't calculate her into the equation, she is an unknown variable that he cannot figure out.

"We're going on a little detour,"

He's learned not to question her, but that doesn't stop him from complaining. "You complete negligence for my schedule is disturbing."

"Shush, you'll like it,"

"You can't know that." He's about to start listing off statistics when she cuts him off.

"_I_ know you'll like it."

He doesn't disagree.

After about half an hour, he notices that the curls that Penny undoubtedly spent more than an hour to curl is coming straight underneath his palm, and they're heading out of town.

"Are you kidnapping me?" he asks her, it concerns him that he isn't more concerned.

"No sweetie, it's just a little way out of town, don't worry about it."

So he doesn't.

Ten minutes later, she screeches to a halt, he wonders why he willingly gets in a car with her. She doesn't obey any of the rules set out for driver, for instance, owning a drivers license. It's probably some horrible malfunction in his brain.

He isn't too eager to get it checked out though.

"Here we are!" she squeals. He removes his hands from her hair and stares out the window. His eyes widen and his jaw drops. She's taken him to a comic book store. The old that they had in town got shut down, so he's had to buy all his comics books online and wait the painful 5 to 10 business days for them to arrive.

"Better shut that mouth Sheldon, you'd give out the wrong impression." her voice brings him out of his trance, and he snaps his mouth shut. He can't even bring himself to be irritated at her, he's just too happy.

He goes in, almost in a comic book high. He spends a full hour going through all of them, he hasn't been in one for so long, he just wants to breath it in. He buys as many as he can for the amount of money that he has, and he's giggling all the way back to the car. When she dropped him off, and they bid their goodbyes, he had the strongest urge to kiss her. When he came to this startling realization, he'd run out of the car before he even understood what he was doing.

He didn't like people as a general rule, but he'd found some of the kids in school to be tolerable. Raj, Howard and Leonard, and of course Penny. The difference between the three boys and Penny, is he'd never had any compulsion to exchange germs with any of them.

That is until recently.

And since he was being honest with himself, it isn't the first time that he'd these sort of impulses with her either. It seemed as though that Penny was an exception to many of his rules, and this knowledge only came to him once Missy pointed it out at dinner last week. He'd been in the middle of lecturing her about why she shouldn't be allowed to just _take_ food off of his plate. She mentioned, rather haughtily that Penny gets to take his food.

He gathered that with the lack of his rebuttal, she was right. Sheldon hadn't even noticed it, he hadn't even noticed that he didn't mind one bit about the germs that Penny had managed to administer to him.

Eventually, he'd come to terms with the fact that Penny, well, she was just an exception. An exception. He could deal with that, it was quite alright with him. This, however, this new development was not. Sharing food, not minding when her hand brushed against his was one thing. Once this development had reached to the point where he purposely wanted to attach his lips to hers and transfer saliva...willingly, it was time to put a stop to this.

Once again, Sheldon found himself hating the way the rest of him didn't agree with his brain. There was a time, before he met Penny, and before he had been forced to spend hours upon, unnecessary hours among juvenile, immature, pubescent children, when he and his brain got along wonderfully. It was a peaceful time, a happier one.

Actually, no, it wasn't happier. He found himself smiling more often than not, even when Penny wasn't around. That normally didn't happen when he had to stay at home with his family. She was distracting though, he'd see things random, things, and instantly his mind would go to her, for example the time he saw a dandelion. He continued to spend twenty minutes smiling at himself and thinking about Penny's hair. It was annoying to put it mildly. Like most things, there were advantages and disadvantages. To Sheldon's surprise, he didn't want to find out about the bad things about her.

Nevertheless, Sheldon made a list.

She doesn't know anything about the string theory.

She took him to the comic book store.

She doesn't care about any of his rules.

He doesn't really care that she doesn't care about his rules.

An hour later, he had a page full of negatives and positives. The negatives won, but Sheldon decided that it really didn't matter, the positives counted as more points anyways. His mother called him down for dinner, so he didn't really have time to do the math. Not that he was really eager to do it anyways.

"Why'd you come home so late today?" Missy asked, her eyes narrowed, she chewed a carrot stick. "Were you out with...Penny?" she adds emphasis on her name so that the rest of his family can take notice on their conversation.

"That blonde haired girl that drives without a license? Jesus has been keeping an eye on her." His mother mutters under her breath. And Sheldon's brother George just grins at him with an all knowing smirk as he helps himself to another helping of chicken.

"Shelly, with a girl? Whaddya know Mary, hell froze over," His father slurs out his sentence. Mary might be the only one that believes her threats to him, but the rest of the family doesn't. So it isn't a surprise for the man of the family to smell like the floor of a brewery and slur his sentences.

"Jesus..." she's praying, and Sheldon doesn't know why, it's not like whispering words written in the bible have ever helped her.

"Now, boy," Sheldon isn't used to being directly addressed by his father, it only happens on rare and intoxicated moments. "I don't want you hanging out with that girl, her brother's a damn right junkie. That don't make her any better."

Of all the things that he can say. Sheldon has long ago stopped reacting to his words, mostly because he was drunk, and other times because he's stupid, and ignorant. But he's skating on thin ice and every single drunken word is making Sheldon's blood boil.

He's got another negative to add to Penny's list.

"You hear me boy? You ain't gonna be talking to that junkie,"

Words are spilling out of his mouth before he can stop them, it's become a common occurrence with him now. "It's funny that you should be judging people on their family members." He waits to see his entire family, including his father recoil before continuing to speak. He figures, since he's already started he might as well finish.

"The drunk judging the junkie? Perhaps it's your inebriated state that doesn't allow you to see the irony of the situation." he stabs at his Brussels sprouts, and then for the first time in a very long time, he stares at his father, "I doubt that Missy's or George's friends don't spend with him due the character of their father. In which case, none of us should be friends with anyone. In fact, mom shouldn't be allowed into her church group,"

He looks to his mother, "I don't mean to be rude, it's just, if we were to follow father's logic, than that's what should be happening isn't it?"

Missy is silently telling him to shut up, but for the life of him, he can't. "I think, I'm going to inform Penny's mother that my father is a drunk, effectively terminating our friendship. Would you like that dad?"

He sneers the word dad, it feels foreign on his tongue. He hasn't called his father dad in quite some time. "If we're to be judged based on our family, then all of us are passive aggressive, abusive bastards." Sheldon slithers the word, only because his father really is a bastard, and it irritates him to no end. Sheldon smirks, picking up his fork and slowly bringing it to his mouth. The sprout tastes bitter in his mouth, but he still chews it, then he points his fork at Missy, smiling all the while, "You're a lush," giggling he points it to George, "and you're a lush," the fork goes next to his mother, "oh, and you're a lush."

The fork moves lazily from his mother to his father, it lingers pointing directly at his face, to Sheldon's delight Bill looks confused. "I apologize, your lack of education seemingly prevents you from understanding what I'm saying, so I'll adjust my speech to adapt around your GED education." He stops speaking, and looks into his father's eyes, the dark blue looks too much like his, "Lush means drunk." he whispers menacingly, then chuckles going back to his food.

It takes a couple of moments for his father to response, "Listen boy, just because you've got a pretty girl sucking your dick don't mean-" He isn't able to finish the sentence because Sheldon withdrew his fist and then let it land on his father's face.

Normally, Sheldon thinks that acts of violence are ineffective wastes of time, he isn't a Neanderthal, he's a higher species and doesn't succumb to acting like an animal. However the sickening crunch of his father's nose under Sheldon's fist is oddly satisfying so he can't even bring to scold himself.

Much to his surprise, his father isn't responding, he'd expected to be thrown off his feet with an almost intolerable amount of pain residing somewhere on his body or face. Instead he comes to see that his father has fallen off his chair and lying unconscious on the floor.

He looks to his mother for support, or answers. He doesn't know what to do next.

She's just eating a carrot, looking too much like Missy, "Damn drunk," she hisses, summarizing the entire night. She looks at him with an eyebrow raised, "So, this Penny girl, you like her?"

He nods, unsure of himself, before sitting back down in his chair.

"Thank Jesus." Missy hollers, "I was starting to think you were gay."


	6. Chapter 6

**Two updates! Yay. Intense chapter, you have been warned. :D Also, I just want to remind you all that no one has edited this but me, so don't kill me for all the spelling and grammer stuff. I tried my hardest. **

**Sorry for the mix up with this chapter, I don't know why it wasn't working. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**Hope you ENJOY! **

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><p>Penny sat on her desk chair, rolling in slow semi circles. It had just occurred to her that everything was nearly perfect. And it was only March. Tommy hadn't been causing any trouble for a while, her grades were in the solid high B's low A's thanks to Sheldon. Her school friends, Charlotte and the other tenth graders were good, her older junior friends, Josh and them were good, and most all Sheldon was good.<p>

She was good. Everything was good. Great. Perfect. She sighed happily and laid her head on the desk, her eyes moved towards the windows. She watched the neighbourhood, after a moment or two, she noticed Leonard walking out of his house, he stopped briefly to peer at Penny's house before continuing on to wherever he was going.

Okay, maybe there was one thing that wasn't so good. Leonard was infatuated with her, and it made Penny uneasy. Sure boys have had crushes on her, but usually it was because she spent a sufficient of time with them first. She was only with Leonard when she was Sheldon. The nerd crew got together sometimes out in the picnic bench where Sheldon ate lunch. Sometimes she'd skip out on lunch with him altogether when she saw the other three boys around him, she'd just go out with Josh, or Charlotte; her other friends.

But there were times when she and Sheldon got there first and suddenly the three boys were among them and Penny couldn't escape. It wasn't as if she didn't like them, because really, altogether they were endearing. Raj still hadn't spoken a word to her, Howard continues to hit on her, and she catches Leonard's eyes too much during lunch. She doesn't exactly mind any of them, in fact, recently she had taken to hanging out with them even after school.

She was there when they played video games and ate pizza. She usually had to skip out, because the game nights would be held at Sheldon's house. Penny may have not met Sheldon till this September, but she did meet Mary Cooper, and really, she didn't need to be reminded once again that god watches _everything_.

The game nights have been moved to Leonard's house to accommodate for Penny, she had fun with them. It turned out that Penny was rather good with video games, much to the boys surprise. All those nights seemed to have a down side though because now whenever it was possible Leonard would be seeking her out to talk to her.

When she would go outside in the morning to grab the mail and newspaper for her dad he would be running out his door to catch her in a ten minute conversation about how the newspaper came to be. And really, she already knows because she's been spending so much time with Sheldon. Sometimes he asks her for rides in the morning, and invites her to dinner with his family, it's weird and annoying. She's tried to subtly tell him that she really wasn't all that interested, and then she wanted to just to tell him out front, but that didn't really work either.

Now she tiptoes around hanging out with the guys.

So yeah, maybe everything wasn't perfect, but it was damn near close.

It was times like these when Penny believed in fate. She didn't believe in god, and that meant that she had to believe in something else. Destiny was real, everything happens for a reason. We are destined for something, and someone, our lives can't just be around floating about.

Maybe that's why Tommy has taken to doing drugs, because when you don't believe in god, and you don't have faith, then what are you living for?

Penny believed that she was on this earth for a reason, she believed that there was a path for her to take, and she just needed to let it take her.

Almost instantly she thought of Sheldon, and her lazy smile turned into a jaw hurting grin.

Yeah, she thought, everything really is sorta perfect.

Then she heard a plate crash from downstairs. Penny retracted.

No, things had _been_ perfect. They weren't anymore.

She can hear the screaming already, Penny thinks about pretending not to listen. There was a time that whenever Tommy got into trouble with their parents she would come rushing to his defense without a second thought. Now, she's reluctant, maybe it's because she knows that what her brother is doing is bad, she knows that.

Or, maybe she doesn't.

_Junkie_, her brain really won't shut up. Her brother isn't a junkie, he's just experimenting with stuff, new town, new kids, it's been hard with all the changes. It's just a phase, don't her parents understand that? Don't they see it?

"Tommy, you will not speak to me that way!"

"I'll do whatever the fuck I want, it's not like you guys consult me before doing whatever it is that you do!"

"Listen boy, this behavior has gotten out of hand! You will not disrespect your mother that way, do you hear me?"

"Tommy, baby, just listen to me. We'll do whatever you want, we'll move back to Omaha, we'll go wherever you want. We'll do whatever you want, please, just don't do this to yourself."

She can't hear Tommy's response but another plate crashes and this time she's running before she can catch up with her feet.

"What's wrong, what's happening?" She's saying, but she knows that it truly doesn't matter. She knows what sides she's on. Tommy's sitting cross legged on the floor, he's crying into his hands.

She crawls over to him, careful of all the broken class.

"Tommy, Tommy?" she whispers, she isn't surprised to see him raise his head. They've always listened to each other.

"I'm so sorry Penny, I'm so sorry." he mumbles grabbing her into a hug. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll stop, I promise."

She doesn't have a chance to speak because she's already crying. She just nods against his shirt and lets him hold her. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

She looks over to her parents, they stand awkwardly, they've never known what to do with the two of them. They didn't need their parents to take care of them, because they had each other. So Bob and Jane walk slowly out of the kitchen leaving the two of them sitting on the floor.

She pats his hair and tells him that he needs to shower and take a nap she'll clean up the mess.

But she's crying so hard, all her words are muffled.

"I made my baby sister cry," Tommy's eyes are red and puffy, except Penny knows it's not from the crying. "What did I do to make you stop? I made you stop crying didn't I?"

She nods, "You took me out for ice cream, and gave me piggy back rides."

He smiles sadly, "I'll take you out for ice cream Penny, I'll take you. I promise I'm still your brother."

She nods again, she knows that he's still her brother. She's loyal that way.

In the morning she's not in a good mood, she barely got any sleep, she really doesn't hold the mental capacity to handle Leonard's whiny voice today.

"I was hoping you could give me a ride again," he tells her sheepishly.

_Only if you sit in the back and shut your trap_

The words are right on the tip of her tongue, but she smiles brightly and swallows the bitterness. "Sure, get in."

The ride is brutal because Leonard won't shut his trap and he isn't taking the hint that Penny really isn't up to take his pathetic mewling. When they park she sees Sheldon squinting at them before bounding over to the car.

She's just about to go up and hug and tell her him all of her problems so he can take them away, or least try. She's taking her first step, she's opening her mouth to say "Hey" but Leonard catches her wrist.

"Penny, I wanted to ask you something."

She really doesn't care, but she stops anyways.

"Will...you, okay, look, I'm just going to rip off the metaphorical band aid here, and tell me if-"

He's taking entirely too long. She can't hear the rest of his words because she's focusing entirely too much on Sheldon, she's focusing on the way that his face seems to get redder by the second.

"So will you?"

"Will I what?" she asks.

"Go...out, on a date. With me?"

Oh. Oh. "Leonard..."

She hears Sheldon's footsteps, he's literally stomping away.

"I've got to go," she says trying to chase after him, but he's too far away. Penny sighs defeated; he couldn't just shut his friggen trap could he?

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><p><strong>Don't kill me! It has to be this way! Sorry, review please? ;) <strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for the mix up with the chapters **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**ENJOY!**

* * *

><p>Sheldon couldn't see any foreseeable future without Penny in it. The fact that he would be in Germany in a few short months made him a little bit nervous. Without noticing, Sheldon found himself preferring to go to Austin instead. Did he really have to all the to Germany?<p>

Of course he had to go to Germany. Why would he want to stay in Texas? He didn't like Texas, he didn't like his town, and he didn't like his family, the only thing he liked was Penny. Was she enough to make him stay?

It startles him that he can't actually answer. Leaving her would feel bad, staying would feel bad. What would feel good?

Once again he didn't know the answer. That's something he's come across after spending copious amounts of times with Penny. After a considerable amount of consideration, a notebook full of incorrect solutions, he decides that she brings out the worst in him.

And he brings out the worst in her.

She relies on him too much, just as he relies on her. He doesn't like the feeling of dependency, he didn't like the fact that despite his best efforts he can't stop thinking about her.

"Oh god, I've become a hippy." He groans to himself covering his face with his hands. "I'm become an angst riddled, hormone driven, teenager!"

Yeah, he defiantly agrees that they bring out the worst in each other. When was the last time she studied for a science test on her own? When was the last time she studied any test on her own?

They aren't good for each other, and he thinks they should leave each other alone. But of course, since Sheldon's brain has been having some technical difficulties, he still demands that his mother take him into the city so he can buy Penny a present.

How Sheldon felt about Leonard was complicated. As was much of his life, he thought sadly.

Sheldon enjoyed Leonard's company, just as much as he liked Raj's. Maybe not so much Howard, but he was tolerable. Leonard, was his favourite. But he thought that Leonard was too clingy, with everything and everyone. He's never seen someone crave so much attention before, this is probably due to absentee parents, but Sheldon couldn't help but find it annoying.

Leonard clung to Sheldon like an unwanted piece of tissue on the bottom of his shoe. Sheldon didn't really understand, he knew that he wasn't the easiest person to like and spend much time with. Of course Penny being an exception.

So Sheldon didn't know why Leonard stuck to him so much, but unlike the rest of his problems and questions, this one, Sheldon was getting to the bottom of.

Turns out not much research, or even effort had to be put in, because the second Sheldon ran over to Penny to give her her present, Leonard's curious behaviour revealed itself.

He was spending so much time with Sheldon, to get to Penny. And for another unknown reason, Sheldon felt jealous. He felt downright territorial, he wanted Leonard to never talk, or even so much as look at Penny again unless under Sheldon's strict supervision. He understood that there was a scientific reason as to why he reacted this way, why his heart rate increased and his cheeked flushed with anger. He knew there was a reason he wanted to say _mine_.

Surely there had to be a reason, a purely scientific reason that Sheldon would get around to understanding just as soon as he fixed his brain.

And when Penny faltered, not answering Leonard's absurd question with a firm no, he realized that he probably wouldn't ever understand as to why he felt his ribs crush his heart.

He doubts there's a scientific reason for that happening. Nothing logical at least.

It's official, she's made him turn into a hippy. He's got to get out of here, out of this insanity. Lest he gets the urge to cry.

Sheldon turns quickly from the truly terrible situation in front of him, and does the only thing he thinks will make the ache in chest to go away. He runs, seems like he had just finally had gotten the hang of actually facing his problems.

While safely tucked away in the corner of his English classroom, he listens to his classmates attempting to read Romeo and Juliet. Maybe he doesn't know anything at all, maybe he isn't as good at solving problems as he thought he had been.

If he spends all his time being a petty teenager; that gets into fights with his father because he insulted his friend, that sulks in the corner of a classroom when said friend is asked out on what people call 'dates', then when will he have the time for science? The time to win the Noble? The time to prove String Theory, wasn't his entire mission to move the dust around him?

Die with something to his name. Not become a dead beat like the rest of his family were.

He didn't want to get _feelings_ that distracted him from his true goal, how did a simpleton manage that anyways?

He immediately scolded himself for calling her that, he knew there was so much more to her.

Sheldon tortured himself like this for the rest of the day, he realized that Penny had some cheer meeting to go to at lunch and his mood worsened even more. To top it all off, Leonard had the audacity to sit with him in his regular picnic table.

"Hey buddy," Leonard mumbled, he was likely to be just as sullen as Sheldon was. "Where's Penny?"

"Cheer," Sheldon said curtly. He didn't want to speak to Leonard, he didn't even really want to look at Leonard. But he did what he must. Sheldon swallowed the urge to punch him, just like he had punched his father.

He probably hadn't climbed as high on the evolutionary tree as he thought he had after all.

"So...about this morning,"

"I don't understand it." Sheldon tells Leonard.

"What don't you understand?" Leonard asks carefully.

"I don't understand why you would do that."

"See!" Raj bursts, "See! I told you that Leonard had no right asking Penny out." He said while pointing an accusing finger at Howard.

"The way I see it, Sheldon and Penny aren't a couple. Penny's fair game."

"That's rather a crude way to put things. Penny isn't to be hunted." Sheldon muttered, hating the way he had the compulsion to defend her. "I just don't understand it, I don't think I ever will. So lets not talk about it."

They spend the rest of lunch ignoring the metaphorical giant, pink elephant.

He pretends not to care that they barely talk during science. He still waits by her car because his schedule has already been run a muck and he can't stand it change anymore today or he might just explode with fury and frustration.

"I didn't think you'd be waiting." Is the first thing Penny says when she approaches him. "What with you being mad and all."

Sheldon wasn't mad, not at her anyway. But it was apparent that she was mad at him. And Sheldon's entire family made it clear that whenever a woman is mad at you, you are supposed to spoil her with gifts.

"I want to present you with a gift." he tells her before opening his messenger bag and retrieving a piece of lamented paper.

"What is it?" she asks without reading it first. Sheldon represses the urge to roll his eyes, a habit he's picked up from Penny.

"I bought you a star." He informs her. Sheldon doesn't expect her to gasp and hug him so hard that he gets veered off course and has to clutch the car behind him to keep them both steady.

From what he understands this is a good reaction.

"Oh my god, that is so sweet." She gushes, her arms still wrapped around his neck. Tentatively he settles his arms around her back.

"Not really, I just recalled when I was seeing you to your house from game night at Leonard's when you told me that it would be _so totally awesome _to own a star. SO I got you one. It's named Penny."

"Oh jeez! How did you even remember that?" She asks, she reels back from the hug, but she still keeps her forearms on his shoulders. His hands drop to her waist, he finds that it settles nicely there.

"Penny," he mutters, "I remember everything."

"Everything?" she breathes in awe.

"Yes, I have an eidetic memory. I remember everything from the day I stopped breast feeding." He stops short, before going on to explain. "It was a deary tuesday..."

"Okay, I get it. So...you're like an elephant? You remember everything...so you only have to learn things once?"

"Yes. I find that-"

She cuts him off again, only this time it isn't with pizza or more witty words. It's with her lips pressed against his. At first, he's too scared to do anything but stand there. Germs, he thinks, Dear God, so many germs.

And then, he thinks about how soft her lips are, how they taste sort of like that strawberry lip gloss that she feels inclined to smear on every morning lunch and after school.

And then he lets his hands do what they've always been doing. He buries it underneath her blonde hair and sighs in complete contentment. Screw germs.

After a while he starts to do what she does and she nearly falls against him.

He grins against her mouth, he understands why she was so happy when she realized he only had to be taught once.

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><p><strong>REVIEW! I hope you liked it. <strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**I watched Labyrinth today. That amazingly weird story, and David Bowie in a pair of incredibly tight pants inspired this chapter. Do not ask me how, I am high schooler, with no life and waaay too much time. **

**No one probably cares, but I have to say this anyways. My history project got a very good mark. :D **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory **

**ENJOY!**

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><p>The thing is, Penny loved her family. She loved them, she loved her mother and her sweet words. She loved her father, and his beer and football nights. Most of all, she loved her brother. Her smart, sensitive, loving brother. They've always been a team, against their parents, against everyone. She remembered when her parents would boast to all their friends that Penny and Tommy got along fine. They were as thick as thieves; they'd never fight and argue.<p>

It was an odd set up, most brothers and sisters never got along. Penny knew that a lot of her friends could barely stand their older siblings, and Penny never really understood. But she was glad that her and Tommy were that close. She was glad when Jessica Silverstone called her stupid in the third grade, Tommy was the one that defended by spitting a wad of chewing gum into her hair.

It was Penny that gave Lauren a flat tire when she rejected Tommy for their school dance.

It was Tommy that told James Lee to leave Penny alone or else...

They were always there for each other, it didn't matter what it was for. They just were.

She has to force herself not to avoid him around the house, she had to force herself to smile at him and not hate him. She forces herself to stay angry at her parents; she forces herself to blame this on them. Because she certainly couldn't blame this on Tommy.

Not that it really was his fault anyway, he was just experimenting...new friends, new town, new hobby. All that jazz.

Just repeat it to yourself, Penny thinks, if you repeat it to yourself that you start to believe.

She smiles at the mirror; she decides that she would be a good actor.

"Good morning darling," her mother sings to her while showering her with beacon and pancakes. "Did you sleep well, love?"

"Yeah," she says happily while munching on her lovely breakfast.

"So Penny, I heard you were going out with that Sheldon guy...heard he's a freak."

Penny tightens her grip on her fork. Don't get angry, don't get angry.

"Oh yeah, and where'd you hear that?" Penny asks through clenched teeth.

"'round school, you know,"

"Didn't know you even showed up to school anymore Tommy." Penny hisses.

"Penny!" her mother scolds, but her face brightens immediately. "Boy? What boy?"

"No boys!" her father barks.

"Oh hush you," Jane pats Bob's arm before turning her attention back to Penny. "Sheldon...this wouldn't be Sheldon Cooper would it? Mary's kid?"

"Yeah, that genius freak that they sent away for all those years." Tommy supplies while slurping his coffee.

"Call him a freak one more time Tommy, go on, I dare you."

"Both of you stop it, Tommy, don't be rude to your sister's boyfriend."

Penny can tell by the way her mother is speaking that she's nervous, she rarely ever has to tell them to stop fighting.

"I heard that George Cooper was...you know..." she tilts her head and makes a drinking motion with her hand before whispering, "drunk."

She ignores her mother's comment on Sheldon's dad, storing that away for later.

"He isn't a freak Tommy, you know, he really isn't. He's wonderful and if you were _my_Tommy right now than I'd tell you all about him. But you aren't." Penny says. He hasn't been her brother lately at all.

She doesn't wait for him to answer, she doesn't wait for her mother to plead for her to finish her breakfast and she doesn't wait for her father to bark at her to sit back down right this instant missy.

No, she just leaves.

Sheldon had lent her his headphones, and she's glad that he did because when Leonard walks out at the same time as her, which she's certain isn't by accident; she pretends that she can't hear him asking for a ride, even though the left ear is broken.

Yeah, she's got a lot to thank Sheldon for.

She's too mad at Tommy to think about anything else, she gave him the benefit of the doubt. She always did, she always picked him over everyone, even her parents. But can she doesn't think she can defend him when he's talking like that too Sheldon.

Penny shakes her head, no, she's just met Sheldon. Just a few months ago, her brother is there forever. Sheldon will leave. Tommy won't.

Too bad Penny remembers that the Tommy sitting in her kitchen table, isn't really her Tommy. It's some guy that gets into trouble, comes home high and makes her mother cry. It's some other Tommy, one she'll gladly leave behind.

"Penny, is there something disturbing you?" Sheldon asks quietly during science.

"Mr. Cooper, do you know the answer on the board?" Mr. Archer asks, Penny stops herself from laughing. It was like he was trying to get yelled at by Sheldon. She expects him to take at least twenty minutes of the class to tell him off, informing him that of course he knows that answer. But Sheldon just says "It's Telephase."

And then his attention is back to Penny, he stares at her expectantly, but she doesn't know how to answer. So she just smiles at him, and leans her head on his shoulder. He stiffens a little bit first, but then relaxes against her. He lets her stay that way till the bell rings, and then they walk out together.

"Why won't you answer my question earlier?"

She sighs, she had wanted him to get distracted by something. It was foolish of her to think that he would though, especially since he knows she's upset.

"It's nothing really,"

"If it was nothing than you wouldn't be so sullen."

He's not going to let this go, and now she had to make a decision. Is she going to tell Sheldon all of her problems? Sure she's thought of telling them all to him, but she's never actually said the words. She always felt like she was ratting Tommy out, and she knew that Sheldon would make a big deal about it.

She trusted Sheldon, but he would leave her soon enough, and then who would she have? So instead of saying, _My brother is probably a drug addict but my parents don't know what to do about it, and I don't know what to do about it. _

She thinks about what her mother said about Sheldon's dad. He's supposedly a drunk, she's heard that around town before too, but she's never given much thought to it. Till now. If Sheldon's hiding things about his family, than Penny had all the right to hide things too. Didn't everyone have dirty laundry anyways? She didn't really need to air hers out right now.

She says, "There's this party I want to go to."

He stares at her expectantly, his eyes are just so blue...

"My friend Cole, you know Cole right?" She's stuttering like a fool. "He's having a party."

This isn't a lie. Cole always has a party going on. His parents have work down in Austin, leaving him home alone more often than not. But the raise in Sheldon's eyebrow tells her that she isn't explaining properly, so she continues on speaking awkwardly. "I mean, I'm friends with Raj and Howard..." she doesn't go on to say Leonard, because she's found out that Sheldon is an extremely jealous person. "You aren't friends with my friends."

"I don't mean to fuss, but you are taking an extraordinary amount of time to explain something that probably isn't very difficult-"

She cuts him off before he can repeat his IQ number and a bunch of other stuff that she really doesn't want to listen too. "I want you to come to this party with me."

Two seconds ago she didn't even know what excuse she was going to come up with, and now she's dead set on him going to Cole's party. Only because she knows that he really doesn't want to, and the more she thinks about it, the more unfair it is that she has to hang out with the geek squad yet he hasn't attended a single kegger. She had to go to them all alone with no one to make out with, so she puts her hands on her hips and stares at him, silently daring him to refuse to go.

Sheldon just sighs. "Fine."

Penny blinks up at him. "What?"

"Fine, I will accompany you_._If only you stop pouting with such consistency throughout the day."

She beams. Penny decides that she sort of has the best boyfriend. And the subject of Tommy is forgotten. Penny takes him to the comic book store, because Wednesday's has become comic book store day.

"I don't understand why I have to be here." Sheldon says with obvious distaste in his voice. They have a science project that they need to do, she knows that he probably could have finished by himself at home within ten minutes.

But what teenage girl would give up the opportunity to have her boyfriend in her room without parent supervision?

Obviously not Penny.

"I wanted you to see my room," Penny says as husky as she can. She doesn't think it sounds like that model's voice on TV she saw the other night, but it's the best she's got.

He doesn't seem to notice.

"Yes well, it's quite average."

Penny tries to be patient. "Sheldon, what do you think we can do in my room?" she whispers, biting her lips and fluttering your eyelashes.

"Well I imagine any number of things, the science project you insisted we do together for one." he pauses for a second to stare at her, "Do you have something in your eye?"

She glares at him, and stomps over to her bed. For such a smart guy, he really knows how to play stupid. Much to her dismay, he takes a seat on her computer chair and starts to pull out books, Penny crosses her arms and huffs, trying to get his attention.

An idea pops into her head, it's cheesy, and there's a good chance that he won't go for it. She doesn't attempt to bat her eyelashes, since clearly, it doesn't work on him. She rolls her shoulder and groans, but he doesn't turn around. So she does it again, a bit louder.

He seriously is not turning around to see why is girlfriend is groaning like she's giving birth? Sheldon only leans his head down to start writing in his notebook, Penny lets subtlety fly out the window and half yells "Ow!"

He spins around quickly, eyebrows furrowed.

She rolls her shoulders once more, for dramatic effect, "My shoulders are just sooooooooo sore," she whines. He looks a little bit suspicious, and this is where hours in drama class come in handy. Her eyes start to water and she starts pouting.

"They weren't hurting earlier today," he says skeptically.

"Yeah, but they're hurting now." A tear slips down her cheek, "Do you think you can give me a massage?"

He looks entirely too hesitant, "Please?"

Extra pout, voice cracks. She has to stop the grin about to form on her face when he starts to get up, worriedly rushing to her side.

And Mr. Ghose said she couldn't act.

"What would you have me do?" he says, Penny takes that as permission to whip off her sweater, than smiles coyly at him.

He yelps, "What are you doing?"

She doesn't answer him, instead she just unbuttons a few buttons on her shirt and pushes it down her shoulders, than she reaches over to her dresser to grab some lotion. "Just a massage," she says.

He gulps and moves to sit behind her.

When he starts to smooth his hands over her shoulder, Penny tries to moan like those girls she saw in the porno she watched once with Amy-Lyn once at a sleepover. (They were curious as to know how the act of _sex_actually happened.) His hands jump, as if startled by the noise and then start to put more pressure.

After a few minutes, and a few more not-so-innocent moans, she realizes that the massage actually feels quite nice and she makes real, whimpering noises.

"Does it feel good?"

His breath tickles the hairs on the back of her neck, for some reason, it sounds incredibly dirty. She shivers, this was a good idea.

"Yeah," she breathes.

He pushes her hair to the side and starts to plant a kiss on the underside of her ear.

Yes, she thinks gleefully, her insides had turned to butter.

"You know Penny," he's kissing a wet trail down to her neck. "I think this was all a clever ruse."

"No, no, I would never take advantage of you like that."

She did though, and she can't bring herself to feel guilty about it, what she can is the suction on a patch of skin that nearly make her melt.

"I think you're lying,"

He's sure to leave a dark, purple mark on a place on her neck that she'll have a hard time covering up. It's probably punishment for tricking him into fooling around before finishing their homework.

Whatever, the jig is up. Penny turns around and grabs his head pulling to kiss him.

They're rolling around, laughing and exploring.

Penny knows her parents won't bother her, because "it's just homework, we trust you"

She forgot to factor Tommy in.

So when he bursts through the door, she knows that he probably has a good reason to be a little upset. With the whole, his little sister being on her back with a boy on top of her, and her shirt not entirely on her body.

Any other time, Penny knew that Tommy would probably kick Sheldon out, or probably just threaten him saying the old '_you break her heart, I break your face'_thing. Any other time she wouldn't be scared, because she knew, Tommy wouldn't do either of them any arm.

Thing is, this wasn't exactly her Tommy. She can tell by how his eyes are bloodshot and how she barely sees any of the green in his eyes because they're surrounded by black.

This wasn't any other time, and Penny was scared.

"What are you doing?" he asks menacingly.

She can feel Sheldon gulp.

"Nothing," Penny mumbles.

Maybe it's time to get up.

Tommy watches while they straighten themselves up, he glares at Sheldon the entire time. And before they walk out of her room, Tommy grabs Sheldon and pushes him against the wall.

"If I ever you see you with my sister again, I will kill you."

Penny doesn't remember a time being so scared, she looks at Sheldon's face, expecting him to a quivering mess. But he looks bored, as if he thinks Tommy won't actually do it.

"Okay, okay, Tommy. I'm sorry. Let's go Sheldon!" she pulls him out of Tommy's grasp and runs downstairs.

"I'm walking Sheldon home!" She screams at her mom before leaving the house.

"Holy shit!" She mutters.

"Why didn't you tell me that your brother takes drugs?"

Penny stops dead, she had done so much to stop this from coming out, but it did. Of course, you couldn't hide anything from Sheldon.

"He...uhm, doesn't."

"Even I believe that you aren't that stupid." he takes a deep breath before looking at her again, "Does he do it often?"

"No!" she screeches, "He does not do drugs!"

She's standing away from him now, space is a reflex when someone insults a person she loves.

Sheldon stared at her coldly. "Why are you defending him?"

"He's my brother," she replies brokenly. What other reason did she have?

"That hardly seems reasonable," he says. "He might be danger-"

"Just shut up Sheldon!" she screams, forgetting for a moment that they're in the middle of her neighbourhood. "Just shut up! It's not like you're any better, isn't you father the town drunk?"

She hadn't meant to bring it up, especially not as cruelly as she had now.

Sheldon looked stunned for a moment, before scowling at her. "Yes, because my drunkenly, abusive father is something to boast about."

"What makes you think that I want to admit my brother is goddamned _junkie!"_She hisses the word through her teeth. It feels so good to finally say it out loud. "You defend your father don't you?"

The blue in his eyes remind her of an angry ocean, she can picture herself caught in the middle of its high tides.

"I will never defend my father." His words are coated with venom and laced with so much hate she flinches. "I really would rather die than breathe a word of good about him."

Penny decides that Sheldon's dad had put him through a lot; no one could talk with so much hate about a man that they were so supposed to love so much.

Is this how Penny would talk about her brother in a few years time? When she was sick of standing up for her drug addict of a brother?

No, Penny decides, she'd probably still be in denial.

Sheldon laughs bitterly, "Why do you defend him?" he asks again, quieter now.

"He's my brother." She repeats.

"Family provides a false sense of security."

"It means everything Sheldon," she says softly, she realizes that he's probably more messed up than she is.

"So is this what family does then?" He makes his point by wiping a tear off of Penny's cheek. She didn't even know that she was crying. "You know my father told me about Tommy, I didn't believe a word of what he said. I assumed that if it were true, you would've have told me."

She looks away, "My mom told me about your dad."

He scoffs letting go of her, "Obviously you believed what she had to say."

"Well its true isn't it?" Penny tries to take a step closer to him, but he just takes a step back. She sighs, swaying slightly where she is. How did thinks get so horrid? "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I try to talk about my father is little as I possibly can." Sheldon looks around, she's reminded of the first day that they met. He was so awkward around her. "I don't want you around him Penny."

She shakes her head, "It's my brother. I can't."

Sheldon gives her a curt nod, "Are we expected to...uhm, 'break up?'"

She feels her heart shatter. "Oh my god, did you want to?" She's about to start pleading, just rethink it Sheldon please? Please? She's not above begging. Alright, she is, there isn't a chance in hell she'll beg. But she wants to.

"You're brother forbid me from seeing you,"

Penny sighs again, this time in relief. She runs up to hug him, "No, that doesn't matter,"

And that's all they say, because they had already run out of words.

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><p><strong>Excuse my cheesiness. I felt that it was needed. Every story needs a good dose of cliche. Otherwise it would be entirely too original. REVIEW! My ego is too fragile not to have constant reassurance. I JOKE! ...(not really) Review, tell me if you hate it, if you loved it. If you want me to add anything in. Penny may be above begging but I am not. Till next time! <strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, sorry for the wait on this chapter. I had it written for a while, but I wasn't sure that I liked it. I didn't know how else to change so it's going up anyways. Sorry for any mistakes, I'm terrible at editing. **

**Also, Sheldon is two minutes younger than Missy. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**ENJOY!**

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><p>Sheldon had the IQ of 187, so suffice to say Sheldon is smart. Sheldon is really smart, thus allowing him to be able to multitask like no other. He was able to do his physics exam while listening to a German audio tape, he was able to write equations into the air and vacuum his family room. He was able to read comic books while discussing twistor theory with one of his professors.<p>

So yeah, he could do two things at once, and it was something he prided himself about. But the next task at hand looked quite difficult. Sheldon was leaned against the cool wall of the school, there was about five minutes before the bell was going to ring and Penny decided that she needed to make him germy before the school day even begun.

From this position he could see Raj, Howard and Leonard in the parking lot. It was obvious that Leonard was trying not to gape at him and Penny together,

Sheldon knew, that due to evolutionary reasons and pathological insecurity, he also factored in on how mammals were naturally possessive to things that they felt were theirs, he knew all that stuff.

But all he was really thinking about was, 'stop looking at her Leonard, you're not allowed to stare at her.'

Yes, his brain still wasn't fully functioning.

Sheldon took all of his multitasking ability and grabbed Penny's head pulling her towards his mouth. He cut her sentence off, but it wasn't as if he was listening to her anyways. Sheldon usually kept his eyes closed during romantic moments with Penny, but this time he kept his eyes trained on Leonard.

He knew that what he was doing was the equivalent of peeing on Penny's leg, but he didn't stop. He watched gleefully as Leonard's eyes widened, but didn't turn away, Sheldon smiled around Penny's mouth.

He let his hands wander from Penny's hair to the curve of her rear and he squeezed the jean clad flesh beneath his palms. He usually wasn't this crude in public, but he felt that it fit. Penny broke away from his mouth and sucked on his neck, luck seemed to be on his side. Not that he believed in it.

When Penny gave a breathy whimper, Sheldon didn't want to risk losing eye contact with Leonard, so he winked, somewhat menacingly at him before closing his eyes and letting his head hit the wall with a groan.

After a minute or so, Sheldon pulled Penny away from him. "How about you don't give my mother another reason to hit a bible over my head?" he whispered. Penny giggled.

"I think the only problem you have is in your pants."

He gaped at her, and realized that his pants wouldn't hide anything.

"Don't worry, you're a genius, you'll think of something." The way Penny said it, made it clear that he probably wouldn't find a way to fix it.

Some genius he was.

They're lying down on the hood of her car, he's pointing out her star to her. After that they're sort of just lying there.

"I find this act incredibly pointless."

She only shushes him and tells him to just feel. Feel what exactly he doesn't know, and he won't ask because she won't answer. "You're still coming to the party right?" she whispers.

He nods stiffly against her. He doesn't want to, but he's been told by Raj that everyone was attending, that included them. At least then when Penny probably either gets tipsy with Molly or Lucy or whomever she chooses to spend her time with and demands that dancing is a part of social obligation, leaving him alone to wander he'll have someone to speak with.

Even if it is Leonard.

He wants to ask her what they'll do next year when he's in Germany and she's still here. He took the liberty to do the research, and he didn't like what he found. Odds were that they were going to terminate the relationship, due to adultery. While the research shows that it's usually the man that commits the crime, he knows with the utmost certainty that he would never allow another person's tongue in his mouth unless it be Penny's.

He also knows that Penny probably wouldn't cheat, but the numbers are against him.

The question becomes more daunting each passing day, Germany or Austin?

He tells his mother that the plan is still as it always was, he tells his mentor that too, and his professors. Except the plan is not as it always was, because it seems that he is off route and lost the map. For the life of him, he does not know what to do.

He feels that he should ask Penny to make the decision for him, but he's also fairly sure she would just smack him. She's never very good under pressure.

"You'll have fun." She murmurs against his neck.

"You can't possibly know that,"

"Fine, but you can try to have fun."

"I cannot confirm nor deny that."

She laughs, and sighs. Sheldon takes into account that they just lay there for another half an hour or so before getting up and going home. It was a pointless activity, but it was nice. Just nice...

Oh good Lord, Sheldon thinks, the women has reduced me this.

"Mamma has been asking about you." Missy said when he walks through the door. "I told him you were with the boys, you know, I don't think she likes Penny."

"Mother doesn't like anyone that doesn't like Jesus."

"I don't like Jesus." she says perplexed. Sheldon raises an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, oh, hey look at you Shelly makin' jokes."

He chooses not to respond. Sheldon doesn't mind his sister most times, of everyone in his family his sister would be his favourite. But there were still times when she annoys him till no end, right now would be one of them. She grabs his sleeves when he tries to shift his way around her to his room.

"Shelly, hold up!"

"What is it Missy?"

"Nevermind, lets go to your room."

And as if she had some sort of permission, she bounds up into his room and shuts the door. He sighs and slowly climbs up himself and enters his bedroom.

"I want to help you."

He wonders how exactly she can help him. His only problems are his work and Penny. Neither are solvable.

"At the party, you don't want to be making a fool of yourself." He listens and nods to her, too tired to tell her to get out.

It's really starting to weigh on him, that he's going to be leaving, and if he doesn't then he'll grow to resent her. He knows he will. He's got to leave. He's got to leave Penny, and her warmth and her smile and her dandelion coloured hair, and her happiness. He's going to leave her, and she'll forget about him.

And then they won't be Penny and Sheldon. It's just going to be Sheldon. He doesn't remember the last time he felt so lonely and utterly hopeless.

"Shelly, aren't you listening to me?" Missy's voice is set firmly in the background. He won't bother with her, he'll just wallow in his misery.

"Shelly?"

They're trying to spend more time together, because of his impending departure but the more time they spend together the worse it gets. She might not be able to recall every single conversation, every laugh, smile, or bitter scowl and harsh words that they sent to each other, but he can. He can remember it so clearly.

He feels his bed dip with the added weight of his sister.

"Shelly, what's wrong?"

There will be no more just _nice_ evenings with Penny, in defeat, his head lolls onto Missy's shoulder. "I'm leaving." he tells her sadly, "I'm going away,"

"Where?" She shrieks surprised. "You're still going to Germany?"

He nods against her.

She doesn't say anything for a seconds, he can hear her swallow. "But...why?"

"I've got to go. It's my future Missy, it's my life. I can't just halt it because I have romantic relations with a pretty girl."

"But it isn't like that." Missy insists. She nudges his off and then all he sees is her opening and closing her mouth without saying anything. He wonders what's got her so speechless. Missy isn't usually so quiet, so he thinks about some of the stuff he used to do when they were younger.

Missy, despite you know being his polar opposite, he's quite fond of her. Maybe it's because she's his twin and there's some sort of bond that twins hold, but Sheldon mostly thinks it's because Missy doesn't apologize for doing anything. Missy is who she is and she accepts it. She knows that she won't make a mark in the world, but that doesn't matter to her, what matters the most is that she's happy with the person she dies as. If she likes the person that she will become, and the person that she is now.

They're more alike than he would care to admit, because all they do is plan for the future. Sheldon knows that if his sister had is IQ points that she'd probably be a lot further in research than he is right now, because Missy is just like that. She makes the most of what she's got.

"I mean, I thought you'd finally stay. At least for a little while." she sounds so sad it takes Sheldon for surprise. He doesn't respond because he knows that Missy will explain herself. She isn't up for letting anyone guess what she's thinking, she needs to make sure everyone knows.

"You never stay, and it's because you're unhappy here. And I get it, sorta you know, Texas, this goddamned town. It isn't for everyone. You're meant for bigger and better things. But..Shelly!" she whines and grabs his shirt trying to shake him.

She can't, because she's just just as skinny and tall as he is, but she still tries. "You're never home, and between mom goin' crazy, and George being, well you know George, it gets a little scary with Dad."

So that's it. Sheldon never gave a thought about his father's attitude towards his siblings. Bill Cooper loved his first born son, and his little girl. He tolerated his wife, and had a less than stellar opinion over his youngest child.

_Boy's too smart for his own good_.

He didn't think that his father was scary to anyone but himself. Suddenly there's a 100 ton of guilt that has landed in the pit of his stomach and he looks at his sister, and he looks at the eyes that match his and he is just so sorry.

So so sorry that the only person he's thought of is himself.

"I didn't know-"

"Now Shelly, don't get stupid. You always did when it came to feelings." her eyes can hold emotion that his never could. He was too clinical, too logical. "He's never talked to me the he talks to you, or George, I know he gives you a hard time and you've got every reason to feel the way you do about him. And for leaving, and not wanting to come back. I get it, I do. But I mean, I miss ya. Sometimes him and mom go at it so loud and he's throwing things, and she's muttering words of the lord under her breath and those are the times that I wish it was like before. Where I'd come to your room, and you'd do some cool science thingy to keep my mind out of it. And then I'd fall asleep and I'd feel...you know, like I had a brother."

He knows what she's talking about. The times when he was younger and had to stay at home and go to elementary school. They'd fight, and Missy would worm his way into his bed and ask him to make the noise go away, he was smart enough, he could do it.

He obviously couldn't make the noise go away, but he could distract her long enough that she could go to sleep.

"I thought, with Penny and all, you'd I don't know, stay another year. Or, I don't know, stay."

Missy loves him like a sister loves her brother. And he supposes he loves her too, more than the rest of his family. Because she's the only that accepts him.

So the guilt doesn't go away. He says, "I'm sorry."

She nods, Sheldon learned, that words have a way making things better. Not worse. At least not all the time.

"I'm sorry you think that Penny was what would make me stay. And not you asking me."

"Family don't matter to me. It don't matter that much to you either." Missy responds. It's true, it doesn't. Blood isn't thicker than water.

Call it trust issues.

"You could though. You could have asked me to come home for the holidays. I would have." Sheldon knows when he is saying this that he would have. He knows with absolute certainty, that he would have been home for the two weeks in December. And the weekend in November. And Spring break. And Summer.

But he doesn't like it at home, and he's a lot more selfish that he originally thought he was. So he didn't come. Mostly because she didn't ask.

"Look at us getting gushy. Look, I don't want you to be here, you don't like it. And I certainly ain't gonna make you do anything you don't wanna. I just thought that you would."

He nods again. She isn't looking for an apology.

"So you haven't told Penny yet."

He shakes his head.

"She's probably thinking about it just as much as you. Just talk to her, don't be such a pansy."

So he smiles at that, because she's a little bit right. Because he's thought about this, and there isn't any way, except to talk. Her eyes sparkle like his. The party is forgotten, and Penny is sort of forgotten, and all that remains in the room is a new sense of kinship and a bond that's been repaired.

They're siblings, but they have different families. Hers is filled with a loving, eccentric mother, and loud father, and cocky brother, and absentee twin. His is filled with an overbearing mother, and a hating father, and a brother he's never really known, and a twin that he just likes. And maybe family doesn't really matter to them, but that's okay, because they matter to each other.

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><p><strong>I know this chapter like got no where...but I think it's important to know about Sheldon's family, and why he doesn't like it at home. So pretty pretty please, review. :D <strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**It's almost doneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, just this chapter and one more after it. eheheheeeeeeeeeee. This is the scene I conjured up in my head when I starting to write this story. AND this is the first thing I wrote. The very first thing. I only edited it a little bit to fit in with the rest. I know it's probably poorly written, but I didn't want to change it. And I couldn't make it better without completely butchering the first scene in my head. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**ENJOY!**

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><p>So maybe inviting Sheldon to a high school party, where underage drinking will be taken place isn't the brightest idea. She comes to this conclusion when he's talking about his MeeMaw that lives in Florida and he promised her that he wouldn't do drugs. And that's why he's refusing her coffee, not because of the germs.<p>

Well duh Penny, he's been sticking his tongue in your mouth for a while now, sharing a drink isn't that big of a deal. So now she's thinking about the seating plan at Cole's party, he's probably going to stand awkwardly because he can't find a good seat. Or there will be a couple making out beside him and he'll want to go home. Scratch that, Sheldon doesn't give up.

He'll just be insufferable, annoying, and whiny. Damn it, he already knows about Tommy, maybe she can just say that she doesn't want to go. Only thing is that she has to go, because she promised Cole, and she promised Charlotte and she even promised Missy.

So she's got to go, and she can't _un-invite _Sheldon because that's rude, and also she doesn't want to. Last night, she sat through a Star Trek marathon, she thinks that she probably does love him a lot if she did that for him. Sure she digs the whole geek chic thing, but everyone has their limits and Star Trek is hers. But she sat through it, and she listened quietly, mostly thinking that she sort of wants to watch something else and also ignoring Leonard staring at her.

Whatever, it's her life now. It's time for him to make some effort. It wouldn't really kill him if he sipped a beer with Cole, Tucker, Boon and Carter. She talks to Howard for crying out loud, he can totally do this for her.

But then Sheldon tells her that his MeeMaw calls him Moonpie and then he slaps a hand over his mouth in complete shock that he admit that to her, and Penny thinks, yeah, maybe it still isn't a good idea.

Penny being Penny, still dressed up for the party, she didn't have to worry about picking Sheldon up because he was going to catch a ride with his sister. So she wore a pretty skirt, and a pretty top and let her hair down. Not that her hair is ever up anymore anyways.

And then she gets in her car, and she drives to Cole's. She wonders what will happen if the cops ever get her, she's never been pulled over, and her parents never objected to her driving. Maybe it just is a perk of a small town, and you know, her father is friends with the Sheriff. Connections get you everywhere in life.

When she gets there, she sees George's car parked on the end of the street and he knows that Sheldon is there, which makes her start running into the party. She's scared of many things that might happen. Like someone tricking Sheldon into doing a keg stand. Instead she finds Sheldon chatting up a girl with brown hair and glasses who looks older than them.

She's never been jealous of other girls before. No one has ever strayed from her, and Sheldon's never even really looked at another girl before. Missy grabs her shoulder and pushes her on the couch.

"Penny! Why did you take so long?" she asks while handing her a cup full of more foam than beer.

She's startled for a second because Missy's eyes look exactly like Sheldon's. Missy, looks a lot like Sheldon. Which isn't surprising because they're twins. She's just as tall, and skinny, and willowy, blue eyes that sparkle with deviance and mischief.

"Getting all dolled up," she nods her direction to Sheldon and the brunette with an ugly cardigan. "Who's that?"

Missy takes a while to locate her and then she just shrugs. "Can't say I've seen her around. But don't worry Penny, it's Sheldon. He's probably telling her how the beer she has in her hands is unclean or something."

She wants to say _I'm not worried. _But she's too busy glaring at them to get the words out.

"Penny! Give it a rest, I think that's Carter's older sister. She was meant to drive him here before leaving, but then she caught Sheldon in a conversation." Charlotte tells her.

"Uh uh," Savannah butts in. "That's Amy. She's a smarty pants doctor too. Genius like your boy Shelly over there."

Penny narrows her eyes. "Why are there so many smart people in this stupid town?"

They all just shrug. The conversation flows like it usually does at these parties. Why is he talking to her for so long? "Where are the boys?"

"Oh, they're baking in the kitchen."

"Baking?"

Missy nods, and then winks. _Baking_.

Penny wants to go and break up the conversation between Sheldon and Amy. She chooses to trust him instead.

"I need to pee."

"No peeing in my house!" Cole yells from the kitchen.

"Where am I going to pee then?" Charlotte screams back.

"Outside!"

Charlotte stares her, "But...I mean his backyard is like...the woods."

"Alright, we'll go with you." Missy says.

And that's how she's in the woods instead of on a warm couch drinking warm foamy beer. She hears Missy telling Charlotte to drop her undies and do her business but Charlotte insists that they go farther out. So they do. There are twigs snapping underneath Penny's shoes, and she's certain that her ankles will be next. She thinks that she's 15 for god sake, shouldn't she be in her jammies with a cup of hot coco?

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><p>She swears that they aren't gone long, Penny knows that it couldn't be any longer than 15, maybe 20 minutes. Charlotte was scared at first to wander out by herself, so Missy went with her, but then Charlotte couldn't go while Missy could hear so she left again. The whole thing was a mess, Missy tripped and tore her leggings, she hopped around for seemed like an hour trying to pry it off.<p>

At first she's concerned that maybe Sheldon is still talking to that girl, and then she's thinking about how a bug may have bite her, and how Sheldon could be doing anything right now, _anything._

She was paranoid, yeah, but her mind was messing with her. It's all the fresh air maybe.

She spots him with Carter, Boon, Cole and the rest of the guys, and what's even more shocking, they're all laughing.

"Hey...guys?" She starts of hesitantly. Sheldon wasn't giving off one of his creepy, wheezy laughs, but it was a real, honest to god laugh. It sounded nice.

"Penny!" Sheldon shrieks, he opens his arms reaching out for her, sloppily grabbing her hips and shoving her down onto his lap. "Penny, I want you to know that the brownies are burned and you shouldn't eat them."

"What brownies?" Penny can't tell if he's drunk, because he doesn't look drunk, she's close enough to him to be able to smell the cheap beer, but there isn't any.

"Brownies," Cole drawls out lazily, "Special brownies." And then he winks, or more like twitches.

"Jesus you guys, why did you go and drug up my brother?" Missy howls.

Penny looks around the room, Charlotte is in the corner with Garrett apparently having already moved on. Carter shrugs at her, he has no response as to why he fed brownies with pot in them.

"He was talking a lot," Boon supplies. "And now he's awesome."

"Hear that Penny? I'm awesome." Sheldon grins at her and nuzzles at her neck. She nods slowly and decides that she might as will make the most out of this situation.

It's only when an hour or two in, when Sheldon pushes Penny against him like she's a rag doll. He leans up so now Penny is the staring at his back, and then he starts writing into the air. His eyes get intense and focused, the room grows silent watching the seemingly crazy boy make signs in the air.

Penny knows that he does this sometimes, usually when he's alone and there's nothing to distract him. But she shrugs, he's high, he's warranted to go a little nuts. Suddenly he shots off the couch bringing her along with him.

"Eureka!" He shouts, then frowns. "No, I should have my own saying." He looks sullen for a few seconds before screaming, "Penny!"

"Sheldon, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, that's my saying. When the history books are made, and anecdotes are written, it'll be Penny they'll shout when they discover something."

Penny just shrugs, with Sheldon you just have to roll with it. "Okay and what did you discover?"

He launches into a lengthy, exhausting explanation, and if Sheldon were completely sober he'd be saying this with a serious face and reminding her every few seconds just how very important every single syllable he breathes out is. But he's just grinning and in between every couple sentences he stops to kiss her before diving right back in.

"Penny, I could...I could win a lot of awards for this, oh my god, I have to...I have too."

"Sheldon...come let's talk outside."

He practically carries her outside before leaning her against the side of the wall and showing her just how very excited he is. "What do you have to do Sheldon?" she asks, breathless.

"I have to leave,"

She's stunned silent. That was not what she was expecting. "Like...right now?"

"No, but...I wasn't sure what to do." he pauses before bringing his hand up to her neck to play with a lock of her hair. "I wanted to stay in Austin for you, and I want to go to Germany for me. But I don't know what to do, and...I don't know what you want me to do."

She sort of thinks that she likes high Sheldon, because if she were to be having this conversation with him before there would be a lot of words that she couldn't understand, and in the end they'd just start screaming at each other.

"I want you to do what makes you happy Sheldon." Penny says softly. She hadn't expected him to stay, in fact, she didn't even think that was an option. She was sure that he was going to leave with looking back. And she knows that even now, that Sheldon does have to leave, that he should leave. For her it's just enough to know that it was at least an option, that at least he cared about her enough to want to stay, he cared about her enough to want to make her happy.

"You make me happy," Sheldon sighs, and what with the way his eyes are drooping she knows he's about to pass out. "And my work makes me happy, but this town makes me sad. Why...can't you and science be one thing?"

She can't help but hoot out a laugh, "You wouldn't like me like that. You like me how I am right now."

He nods dumbly, running his hands up and down her sides. "Go to Germany Sheldon."

"I'll come back...for Christmas, and I know how much you like Spring Break, I'll be down here for that too."

Penny closes her eyes and leans her forehead against his. "I don't want that. You'll be distracted, you don't even like it here Sheldon. You hate this town, and you hate their accents, and you hate it's bible loving nature. You hate it,"

"But I like you, no, I can say with some amount of certainty that I love you."

"I know, but it's not enough. At least for not right now."

He looks at her, unleashing his baby blues to her. "When?"

"Later...we'll find each other later. If we're meant to be, we'll find each other...later. Maybe we met too early Sheldon, maybe you weren't supposed to come back...maybe someone somewhere dropped his wallet at the wrong time, and it messed up all of our lives." She's bullshitting all of this, but there's one thing that she really believes in. She knows that her and Sheldon are meant to be, and she doesn't care that she sounds like a delusional 15 year old girl, there's a feeling in her heart that just knows she's right.

"I promise Sheldon, sometime in the future...we'll meet. We'll meet when we were really supposed to meet. This," Penny motions her hands around them, "This," she repeats, "This right here, it was just a ...a detour."

Sheldon nods against her again, she relishes the feeling of his skin against hers. She looks up to the sky and prays with all her right that she's right, that whatever she's saying is true...

"I believe you,"

"We'll be together for real one day Sheldon."

He nods again, except this time she knows it's out of defeat.

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><p><strong>Out of the goodness in your hearts, don't kill me. It had to be this way, and it had to be high Sheldon because I don't know how to write real Sheldon. REVIEW, pretty, pretty please? <strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**Last Chapter. I'm sooo terribly nervous for this. I don't want it to be anti-climactic, or too corny or you know. Nerveeeeeeeeeees, I almost don't even want to post this because I'm scared. BUT I MUST. There's a epilogue, it's mostly written, if I'm not lazy, I'll edit it and post it on today. Anyways, I hope you like this. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**ENJOY!**

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><p>His mother his kisses his cheeks, she doesn't have the decency to wipe off the lipstick afterwards. So Sheldon walks on stage with the three fuchsia coloured lips on his face. He does his speech that way, and smiles for the cameras that way. Afterwards, Sheldon's too tired to be angry at his mother, instead, he thinks about how Penny would love that, and he lets the thought of sending her some of the photo's float around his head for a while. He lets his mom and Mewmaw have a copy before throwing them all out.<p>

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><p>"The youngest to win the Stevenson's award!" Dr. Stark laughs, "And you said that year off wasn't a good idea."<p>

He wants to tell him that he owes his prestigious award to Cole and his special brownies, he doesn't want to admit that Dr. Stark was right.

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><p>"Shelly, mom wants to know if you lost any weight." Missy's voice is wheezy, suffering from the flu that is going around back home. When she sneezes, Sheldon's suddenly glad that he's half way around the world.<p>

"No, I gained 2.5 pounds."

She coughs, hacking up mucus. He has the urge to tell her to call him back later, when she isn't sick. "It probably ain't from getting fat, you got taller didn't you?"

He's about to respond when she interrupts him, her words urgent. "Look, Sheldon, momma told me not to tell you this. It might upset you, but I think you should know."

"What is it Missy?"

"Penny and her family moved. Tommy got into some trouble, and they're taking him back to Omaha, being closer with family...they think that might help him."

He's been gone for five months, and Sheldon hasn't heard a word about her, sure he's thought of her, but no concrete information. Any chance of seeing her again seems to fly out the window. He wants so badly to believe everything she said that night, but he doesn't trust her words. He's a scientist after all, he needs proof.

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><p>For a while it seems that the world is set up so that Sheldon can never forget about Penny. Logically, Sheldon knows it's impossible for him to forget about her, but he'd rather not have every yellow flower bring back memories that are far beyond his reach. So Sheldon starts to move around a lot, he never stays somewhere too long, if he gets used to the routine he'll have less things to distract him. Instead every year or so, he goes to a different country, he learns a different language, he learns to deal with always, <em>always<em> missing her.

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><p>He's 22 when he decides to stay settled in one place. He moves to California, and he doesn't know why. He wonders if it's because of the University he's offered to work in, or if it's because he's sick of having to learn the different transit systems. He's made great strides into the science community and people except great things from him, and Sheldon can say that he's happy because he is.<p>

It's all Sheldon has wanted since he was a kid, he knows that he can do something that can change the world, and he knows he can make a difference. He knows that his life is on track, and he knows that he's happy. Except, sometimes, sometimes when someone talks about the stars, he's reminded of the one he got for Penny. He's given up on her, he knows that he shouldn't but Sheldon's sick of waiting for something, he's sick of feeling empty.

He doesn't have a new country to explore, a new language to learn, a new place to get used to. So he makes a strict routine, he carves himself a strict life. He accounts for every hour in every day.

He's at the university nearly a week before he finds out that Leonard, Raj and Howard all work there. Raj had went back to India for a while, Howard went to MIT and he's never really figured out where Leonard went to school for. The three of them had kept in contact and had hoped to work in the same area. It was just lucky that they ended up in the same place.

After that Sheldon and Leonard move in together, for convenience, almost a year goes by before he realizes that Leonard actually spoils him. He drives him to work, and the comic book store and gets his take out properly, almost a year goes by before he realizes that Leonard is his best friend.

They're walking up the stairs since the elevator has been broken since they first moved into the building. They're walking and talking about nothing in particular, Sheldon heads straight for his apartment, but Leonard stops short.

"Holy crap," he mutters.

"What is it Leonard-"

And then it's Sheldon's turn to stop short.

She looks the same almost, just older, and a little taller. Her hair is shorter, blonder, but still the same. She's taking things out of a box in front of her, and humming to a song on the radio. Sheldon's mind starts to swim, he isn't sure if he wants to laugh or cry, or just leave. A million thoughts run through his mind, he doesn't know what to feel because Sheldon had given up on her years and years ago.

"Hello." Sheldon blurts out awkwardly. Even after all this time he still can't control what he says around her. Green eyes stare back at him with the same expression that he's had memorized since he was 15.

"Hi." She breathes out.

And Sheldon realizes that he's never given up hope, not ever, not really.

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><p><strong>Be very very nice, I warned that I'm no good with endings. Review...or actually don't. I'm sorta scared. NO I lied, REVIEW! <strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay, now it's really done. Even mooreeeeeeeeeeeeee nervous. Thank you everyone who stuck with me, and reviewed and liked my story. I hope this is good for you. **

**Anyways, this is in Leonard's point of view. And people don't give him much credit, he does put up with Sheldon's crap a lot. Anyways, this came to me when I was writing the last chapter. because I wanted to write more about their life after they meet. But I knew it wouldn't be any good, so here it is. It's just over the span of like a few months, maybe a year. **

**I do not own the Big Bang Theory. **

**ENJOY!**

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><p>Leonard's not a jerk, sure, he makes somewhat jerky comments, but he isn't really a jerk. Not till he meets Penny for the second time, not till he has to see Penny and Sheldon together.<p>

He isn't jealous, he isn't. At least not in that way. He's over Penny, she was just another pretty girl in high school that didn't give him the time of day. Leonard doesn't really care about her in that way anymore, and mostly he's forgotten all about her. He can admit that he almost didn't recognize her, but he did.

So whatever, Leonard isn't a jerk. He's just jerky around the way too sexed up couple.

See, when they met again for the first time in a very long time, it's all really sweet.

He looks at her from across the hall, and she looks at him. They smile, and Lily Allen's cheesy song starts playing. Cut to black. Roll credits. It's done. Or well it would be done if Leonard's life was a shitty romantic comedy. No, Leonard's life is just shitty in general.

See, after they smile, the camera's don't really pick up the part where Sheldon takes one big step, and Penny runs two small steps and they crash somewhere in the middle.

And from the goodness of Leonard's heart, he was really sort of happy for Sheldon. But he doesn't want to watch this crap, because they look like rabid animals in heat. He has to watch it because he doesn't have the keys.

His keys are in the bowl in his apartment. It's the first goddamned thing Sheldon bought, claiming that they needed a bowl to put the keys, because if they lost the keys, how would they get inside? So Leonard uses the bowl, he quite likes the bowl, he's never lost his keys because of the bowl, but he's left them in there. He doesn't have his keys.

Sheldon has the keys. But they're in Sheldon's pants, near his hips that are pressed against Penny's...Leonard doesn't know the proportions. Probably her stomach or something

That is so beside the point.

Leonard has to literally wait there for like ten minutes before they broke apart for air. They were starting to get handsy.

Much to Leonard's relief, Sheldon seemed to know the problem, so he digs into his pockets, and chucks the keys in Leonard direction before walking Penny backwards into her apartment and slamming the door shut.

Well whatever, they have a lot to catch up on.

Anyways, this is the beginning of Leonard's problem. You'd think, Sheldon being Sheldon, that he'd have something against public displays of affection. Untrue. He has no boundaries whatsoever. Actually, that's a lie, he does. Because Penny and Sheldon are never at Penny's apartment, the apartment that she doesn't have to share.

Of course they wouldn't spend any of their naked time there, why would they? What with Sheldon's anal behavior, he obviously will only sleep with her on _his _bed, in _his _room that no one else is allowed in. Creepy.

Oh, they've done it on the couch too, but it was still in Sheldon's spot.

Oh crap, he forgets about the kitchen counter. Leonard actually walked in on that one. He wonders if he should be so fine with eating on that table, but he knows that Sheldon cleans like a freak, so that table is probably cleaner than it was to begin with.

It's not like Leonard's complaining, because that's 11 years of not seeing each other and then suddenly getting to almost live together. He gets why they're like bunnies, he's just sick of hearing it through his bedroom wall, because, you know Penny is loud and Sheldon likes to talk a lot. But there's also the little things, like accidentally leave her panties in between couch cushions, and he's sick of not being able to waltz in the bathroom because they're showering together or something.

He asked Penny if they could switch, she could take his side of the apartment and he'd take her apartment. But Penny just huffs, saying that she wants to be independent and likes to have her own space. Except Penny doesn't realize that she doesn't have her own space anymore, same way Sheldon doesn't have his own space. It's like the way she has green lantern band aids in her bathroom cabinet and the way he uses a white board with Penny's name and heart written with permanent marker on the corner.

He's still kind of shocked how they all ended up in the same place together after so long. Sure Leonard's kept in touch with Raj and Howard, they've always talked about working together, but he knew it was a long shot. Then Sheldon shows up, and three years later so does Penny. Leonard does the math, because, you know, he's nerd. It's weird, and it's all a coincidence. But suddenly, he feels like he's in high school again.

They're eating take out and watching Star Trek, and other crap that Penny mutters about hating, but still watching. She still kicks everyone's asses in video games, and she's still glued by Sheldon's side, it seems exactly like tenth grade did. Except, Sheldon isn't bitching at Leonard for staring at Penny too intently.

The point is, they're sickeningly sweet. Sheldon wears a hairband on his wrist because Penny always needs one, but always forgets to have one. Penny wears Sheldon's super hero t-shirts with a makeshift cape and gets Sheldon's order ready before he sits down on Tuesdays. Sheldon, when either tricked into being drunk, or high off coffee calls Penny his dandelion girl, and Penny always calls him her Dr. Whack-A-Doodle. And that's when they aren't fighting.

It's like world wars when they do fight. Sometimes they do it with being mean to each other, like Penny spitting in his burger, and Sheldon stealing all her underwear and hanging them on the telephone wires. Sometimes they fight with their voices till they're blue in the face.

And then they're right back up to making up and being all couply again.

But right now, Leonard wants to scowl into his bitter coffee while he watches Sheldon whisper the plot of Dr. Who into Penny's ear, but he's happy for them. He's glad they aren't in high school, because Leonard was always so jealous then, he was so envious of _everyone_. Back when he was 15 he would've moaned, and whined about how he deserved the girl, about how he deserved the Saturday Night Laundry, and Saturday morning breakfast. How he deserves to be in love with the pretty blonde. Not the semi-narcissistic, overly genius guy.

He's older now, he can appreciate someone else's happiness.

Plus they're moving out next week, so that's something he's got that too look forward too.

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><p><strong>Be very very nice, I warned that I'm no good with endings. Review...or actually don't. I'm sorta scared. NO I lied, REVIEW! <strong>


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